County sets $6.5 million price target for new court building

GAYLORD — It was a year ago when Otsego County Commissioners approved a proposal to move the court and other offices out of the J. Richard Yuill Alpine Center to a new building to be built on land near the county dog park between Otsego and Illinois avenues in Gaylord.

Beset by age, mold and infrastructure issues, the Alpine Center is being phased out and Otsego County Administrator Matt Barresi said the county is proceeding with plans to construct a new facility that had cost estimates as high as $8 million.

"During our discussions we said that ($8 million) was too high. We have ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money of $4.7 million and we also have funds from other sources. We are hoping for something in the neighborhood of about $6.5 million" for the new building, Barresi said.

The $6.5 million estimate means taxpayers will not be asked to pay additional property taxes, noted Barresi.

Right now, Thomas Marquard, director of planning, zoning, capital projects and grants for the county, is meeting with all of the potential tenants, which includes the circuit and family courts, the office of prosecuting attorney, probation and others, to go over their requirements for the new building.

"We want to make sure the tax dollars are spent wisely and that this building will satisfy everyone's needs," Marquard said. "We have to look at old MOs (method of operations) versus new MOs. We now have a building where it's hard to utilize some of the meeting spaces. But in this new building we can utilize less meeting rooms because of technology. We want to figure out how many bathrooms we need and how many are needed for employees and the public."

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Barresi said the Alpine Center continues to be plagued with bad infrastructure, as flooding recently occurred in an office area. The center was originally constructed as a tuberculosis sanatorium in the 1930s and then converted to a mental institution in the 1960s. In 1982, the county purchased the building and five others along with 160 acres for $1 from the state.

"Plan B is if we can't make this (a new building) work is taking the ARPA money and trying to refurbish the Alpine Center to last another 10 to 15 years, which none of us want to do," Barresi said.

Assuming they can come up with a building design that meets everyone's needs for $6.5 million, Marquard said they hope to bid the project out next spring and break ground shortly after.

"We are looking at a completion date in late summer 2026," Marquard said.

— Contact Paul Welitzkin at pwelitzkin@gaylordheraldtimes.com .

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: County sets $6.5 million price target for new court building